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The Choice of a Lifetime

Returning From the Brink of Suicide

1996

53 mins

A suicide attempt is made every minute in the United States - every 17 minutes, an attempt is fatal. This documentary tells the stories of six people, ages 21 to 73, who returned from the brink of suicide and transformed their...

A suicide attempt is made every minute in the United States - every 17 minutes, an attempt is fatal. This documentary tells the stories of six people, ages 21 to 73, who returned from the brink of suicide and transformed their despair into a journey of healing.

We meet a retired white physician who longs to join his beloved wife after she dies of cancer; a young white woman who is afraid to tell her homophobic family that she is a lesbian; a Mexican American man drawn to the "collective suicide" of inner city gang violence; a white career woman and mother addicted to risky behavior; a Native American man whose family refused to believe he had been a victim of incest; and an African American woman who turned to drugs and alcohol after being raped as a teenager and later abused by the husband she hoped would save her. In candid and intimate interviews, each explains what led them to the brink of suicide, what stopped them, and the different methods each found to recover and sustain meaning and value in existence including support groups, therapy, spirituality, and artistic expression.